Businesses tap bottled water supplies

BOIL-WATER ORDER REMAINS IN EFFECT

Kyong Kim of Auburn waits for the water to clear today before doing laundry at Tatnuck Cleaners in Worcester following a citywide water shutdown because of a water main break Monday at Chandler and May streets. (T&G Staff/TOM RETTIG)

WORCESTER 
The citywide water shutdown forced businesses big and small to change procedures today and sent them scrambling for supplies of bottled water.

The situation caused confusion in doctors' offices and slowed production at manufacturing facilities. Some businesses lost money, while others were merely inconvenienced and still others were unaffected.

UMass Memorial Medical Center canceled all of yesterday's clinic and ambulatory patient visits, but many patients showed up for their appointments anyway. Spokesman Rob Brogna said doctors reported to work and did not turn away any patients.

“We're seeing patients if they come in,” he said.

Bottled water was delivered to inpatient and emergency wards, while elective medical procedures were postponed.

St. Vincent Hospital started conserving water as soon as hospital officials learned the water supply would be cut. As a result, the building never lost water pressure, spokesman Dennis L. Irish said.

St. Vincent canceled a handful of surgical procedures and delayed others by two hours — “until we could get ahold of equipment manufacturers to reassure ourselves that the filters and the screening systems that sterilize instruments wouldn't be compromised by this,” Mr. Irish said. “We learned it was OK, it was safe to proceed.”

The hospital used bottled water for all procedures and provided bottled drinking water to patients.

Worcester's water supply slowly trickled back into operation today after water was shut off Monday night so crews could repair a large water main break on Chandler Street. City and state health officials have said Worcester water must be boiled before it's used for drinking, cooking or even brushing teeth. The boil order is in effect at least until after sample test results return tomorrow.

Water fountains at St. Vincent Hospital and elsewhere in the city were blocked off with signs or caution tape today, reminding people that the water is unsafe to drink.

At the Greendale Family Branch of the YMCA, employees told members coming in for their morning workouts not to rely on cooling off with water from the bubblers.

“We're telling our members to bring their own water or buy water,” said Trevor D. Williams, senior executive at the branch.

Polar Beverages, a maker and bottler of sodas and seltzers, keeps large stores of clean water at its Worcester facilities. Polar dispatched truck loads of clean water to many schools, colleges, hospitals, nursing homes and other businesses in need.

The company was also selling water at a discount — 5 cents a gallon — at a self-fill kiosk at 22 Hope Ave.

“Frankly, we would have made it free, but the machines require at least a nickel to operate,” Ralph D. Crowley Jr., Polar's chief executive, said in an email. “We will continue this pricing until the boil water alert is removed for the city.”

With its large plant on Southbridge Street, Polar itself is one of the city's biggest water users, going through nearly a million gallons of water a day. The company shut down several soda bottling lines Monday night when the water supply thinned — a situation that Christopher J. Crowley, executive vice president and treasurer, initially called a “nightmare.”

“We didn't have any contamination, it's just that we slowed down,” Mr. Crowley said today.

By late morning, almost all the bottling lines were running again. Polar's plant includes water purification systems, but the equipment needs high water pressure to run properly.

Half a mile away from where water started gushing from the broken pipe, Fairlawn Rehabilitation Hospital secured enough bottled water to keep its 93 patients hydrated for a few days.

“We have an emergency water plan in place that will get us through,” said Paula J. Bigelow, Fairlawn's director of quality management.

Timely notification from city officials helped the DCU Center prepare for a day without tap water, according to General Manager Sandy Dunn.

The DCU Center hosted a housing conference yesterday that included the governor and other high-ranking state officials. Ms. Dunn said the center had bottled water on hand, which was used to brew coffee for the event.

That was not the case everywhere. Without a clean water supply, many coffee shops were unable to produce the drink their customers so badly wanted.